The game was played at the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern, Switzerland, on 4 July 1954, and saw West Germany beat the heavily favoured Golden Team of Hungary 3–2.

[1] Beyond football, some historians ascribe the match a lasting impact on both German and Hungarian post-World War II history, contributing in West Germany to a sense of regained international recognition after the lost Second World War and denazification, and in Hungary to discontent with the communist-authoritarian regime in the run-up to the 1956 Hungarian revolution.

[3] In the five years prior to the final, it had remained unbeaten in 31 games (32 if counting a match against East Germany in 1952 that is not considered an official international).

[6] Innovations included pulling Hidegkuti – who was nominally listed as centre-forward – back into midfield to create space for the inside forwards, Puskás and Kocsis; employing Bozsik as deep-lying playmaker, with the other half-back, József Zakariás, covering for Bozsik; requesting full-backs to assist in attack and wingers to assist in defence; and introducing flexible positional play that created confusion among opponents used to fixed roles and strict man-marking.

From a statistical perspective, on the eve of the 1954 World Cup final, the Hungarian team held the highest Elo score for a national side to that date.

In the subsequent 3–8 loss to Hungary, Herberger rested several key players and played others out of position (for example, Fritz Walter as central striker instead of playmaker).

However, by sparing his strongest eleven, Herberger may have obscured the real strength of the German team to its subsequent opponents, including Hungary.

As Hungary's semi-final against Uruguay was decided only after extra time, the team missed the return bus from Lausanne, and had to organize private cars that arrived only late at night.

The evening before the final, a village fair took place in front of the hotel that lasted until the early morning hours and disrupted the players' sleep.

In particular, central defender Liebrich and right winger Helmut Rahn secured places in the starting lineup only after strong performances in the quarter-finals against Yugoslavia.

In addition, the German team was equipped with boots supplied by Adidas that featured hitherto unknown, exchangeable, screw-in studs.

In the 10th minute, Fritz Walter played Rahn free on the left wing, who crossed low and hard into the center.

In the 42nd minute, Fritz Walter found Schäfer in the penalty box, who dribbled past Lóránt and forced a save at full stretch from Grosics.

Rahn picked up Lantos' short clearance, feinted a pass to center forward Ottmar Walter that wrong-footed the Hungarian defenders, moved into the penalty box, and drove the ball hard and low past Grosics for the third German goal.

[27][38] Two minutes later, Puskás appeared to have leveled the score once more when he converted a through ball from Tóth flicked on by Kocsis, but the attempt was ruled offside.

Assistant referees: Vincenzo Orlandini (Italy) Sandy Griffiths (Wales) Match rules A match analysis by the website spielverlagerung.de, produced 60 years after the game based on data extracted from Herbert Zimmermann's live radio commentary, shows Hungary ahead in most categories, except goals scored.

The analysis also suggests that many Hungarian attacks went through the centre, in most cases orchestrated by Bozsik, who played numerous accurate through balls to Hungary's forwards.

By contrast, the German team attacked almost exclusively from the wings, with Fritz Walter playing a key role as ball distributor and flexible offensive player generating numerical superiority in select portions of the pitch.

Further, the data point to an excellent defensive performance by Liebrich, who – according to Zimmermann's commentary – blocked six shots, intercepted nine passes, and won all of his 10 one-on-one duels.

Several members of the team fell ill with jaundice, presumably from a contaminated needle, and of them, winger Richard Herrmann, died just eight years later of cirrhosis, at the age of 39.

"[47] As the co-author of a study conducted by the University of Leipzig, he also hypothesized that the German players, unbeknownst to them, may have been injected with Pervitin (methamphetamine) – a stimulant given to soldiers in World War II.

[49] In an interview with Der Spiegel, Eggers also claimed that the German Football Association hampered their research by not allowing the team to access their archives.

[51] As television was available only in a few homes or public places in 1954, the radio reports by György Szepesi and Herbert Zimmermann were the main vehicles for transmitting the World Cup final live to the Hungarian and West German populations.

This is more than what we dared to hope in our wildest dreams" – including after Buzánszky cleared Rahn's shot on the goal line: "now, dear Hungarians, we have to say: now you have been lucky".

Kudos to these boys, who can lose so gracefully, who have demonstrated to be true World Champions: when they once get beaten, they carry the defeat with dignity.

"[2]Sebes was severely criticized for the team's selection and tactics, and blamed the negative reaction in part on Szepesi's emotional radio report.

[61] The unexpected win evoked a wave of euphoria throughout Germany, which suffered from a lack of international recognition in the aftermath of World War II, and where expressions of national pride were still tainted with the recent past.

[62][63] Some publicists described the 1954 victory as a turning point in post-war German history, notably Arthur Heinrich[64][65] and Joachim Fest.

[67] Hungary's Golden Team remained largely intact until the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956, except that coach Sebes was replaced with Bukovi in early 1956.

[70][71] In 1990, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the German Football Association invited the surviving members of Hungary's 1954 team to join celebrations for Fritz Walter's 70th birthday.